How to Make USB Connection on Android Always “File Transfer”

You have a few options (mode) when Android devices connected to a computer via USB. You can choose between File Transfer, USB tethering, MIDI, PTP, or do nothing. By default, it will just do nothing and the computer can’t access anything from the device.

For someone who transfers data between phone and PC a lot, this behavior rather irritating. Instead of selecting the mode needed when the phone is plugged into the PC, we can actually set the default protocol to “File transfer” so the device would be always ready to use once connected.

So, how to make the USB connection on Android always set to “File transfer” and what actions needed to get that enabled?

NOTE: This guide is based on Android 10 which may look different to other Android versions.

1. First, we need to enable “developer mode”. Go to Android Settings > About phone then tap Build number multiple times until you see “you are a developer now”.

2. Still on the Android Settings, go to System.

3. Next, enter Developer options (sometimes called Developer mode).

4. Find and tap Default USB configuration.

5. Check on File Transfer.

6. As a final step, try connecting the phone with a computer and see if the protocol is automatically set to “File transfer”.

Under the “File transfer” protocol, the Android storage can be seen right away from Windows Explorer — no additional action required from the phone standpoint.